Vanity-case



W. G. KENDALL.

VANITY CASE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 19, I918. 'l ,329,412. Patented Feb. 3,1920.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM G. KENDALL, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

VANITY-CASE.

Application filed March 19, 1918.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM G. KENDALL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Newark, in the county of Essev and State of New Jersey, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Vanity-Cases, of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates to vanity cases or similar containers for toiletarticles such as con'iprcssed powder and rouge tablets or the like andthe primary object of the present invention is to provide a novel andefficient means for retaining the articles within the case.

It is a further object of the invention to provide in a container of theclass mentioned, means for retaining the powder and rouge tablets inplace, which means will be inconspicuous as a retaining means and willat the same time enhance the artistic appearance of th article as awhole, the said retaining means furthermore having the appearance of apartition wall within the container serving to divide the interior ofthe body of the container into separate com partments housing the rougeand powder tablets respectively.

A further object of the invention is to provide within a container ofthe class mentioned means for retaining in place the arti cles disposedtherein, which means will serve, as stated above, as a partition wall todivide the interior of the body of the container and also as a means forrelatively bracing the front and rear walls of the said body so thatwhile such articles are ordinarily made from light sheet metal, the oneembodying the invention will be exceptionally strong and not liable tohave its walls crushed in or otherwise distorted.

The invention has as a further object to provide a retaining means forthe purpose stated which will securely hold the rouge and powder tabletsor similar articles within the container and will yet permit of readyremoval of the bases or supports for the tablets after the tablets havebeen consumed and it is desired to place fresh tablets within thecontainer, the retaining means further presenting the advantage thatwhen the new tablets are to be placed in position they are automaticallylocked in place when disposed within their respective compartments andpressed down into position upon the bottom of the container. Thus notonly may a lady making use of the vanity box readily re- Specificationof Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 3, 1920.

Serial No. 223,421.

but also the filling of the box in the factory may be accomplished in anexpeditious manner and with little likelihood of injury to the tablets.

As above stated the retaining means embodying the present invention isdesigned secondarily to serve as a partition wall dividing the interiorof the container into separate compartments in which the rouge andpowder tablets or cakes may be respectively housed, and a furtherfeature of the invention resides in so forming this retaining memberthat in serving the purpose of a partition wall, it will prevent thepowder puffs which are disposed within the compartments coming incontact with each other so that there is no likelihood of powder fromthe rouge puff being deposited onto the face powder pufi', th saidmember therefore serving as a means for separating the two pufi's.

So far as the fundamental principles of the invention are concerned, theinvention contemplates the provision between the articles to beretained, of a normally expanded means which is interposed between thearticles and acts against the same to hold the articles firmly againstrelatively fixed ele ments which in the illustrated embodiment of theinvention are the opposite end walls of the body of the container, thesaid normally expanded means being capable of compression so as topermit of disengagenmnt and removal of either or both of the articles.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a vanity case embodying the presentinvention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view therethrough, the rougeand powder tablets and their respective pufi's being shown in elevation;

Fig. '3 is a vertical transverse sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig.2;

I ig. 4c is a perspective view of the retaining member removed from thecase.

In the illustratedembodiment of the invention, the retaining deviceconstitutes a part of a vanity case and serves to hold,

use in connection with but two of such articles for it might be employedin retaining a single article within a case, or one or several of theretaining devices might be employed in retaining more than two of thearticles in place. It is also to be understood that I am not to belimited to the use of the s ecific retaining means illustrated in therawings and to be hereinafter described, inasmuch as normally expandedretaining members of many other forms could be employed foraccomplishing the desired result.

In the drawings there is illustrated a vanity case preferably formed oflight sheet metal and including a body indicated in general by thenumeral 1 and a lid indicated in general by the numeral 2. The lid 2 ishinged as at 3 to the rear wall of the body which wall is indicated bythe numeral 4, the said body further includin a front wall 5, arcuateend walls 6, and a ottom 7. Of course, if desired the case may be ofsome shape other than that shown in the drawings, although it ispreferable that the case have the shape illustrated in the drawings Asis usual in articles of this class, the lid 2 is provided with amarginal depending flange 8 which is designed to fit down over the upperedges of the walls 4, 5 and 6 of the body and the said walls of the bodyhave their upper marginal portions struck-in slightly, as indicated bythe numeral 9, thus forming a narrow shoulder 10 within the body 1. Alsoas is usual in such articles the front wall 5 is struck-out near itsupper end to provide a rotuberance 11 designed to snap into a similarlyformed socket 12 in the forward side of the depending flange 8 of thelid 2 for the purpose of holding the lid in closed position and in thepresent instance the protuberance 11 is located above the shoulder 10and the purpose of thus relatively positioning the protuberance andshoulder will be presently explained.

As before stated, the articles to be held within the case constitute inthe present instance a rouge tablet, indicated for example by thenumeral 13, and a face powder tablet 14, and these tablets arecompressed and housed within shallow hollow bases 15 each of which hasan annular upstanding wall 16 surrounding the respective tablet 13 or 14as the case may be. While a powder tablet can best be maintained inwhole condition by the use of a shallow hollow base such as abovereferred to, and it is preferable to employ such a base where theretaining means of the present invention is to be made use of,nevertheless the retaining means will act equally as well with suchtablets when the same are merely secured upon flat disk-like bases. Asbefore stated the end walls 6 of the body of the case are of arcuateform and their curvature corresponds to the marginal contour of thetablets to be held so that when the tablets 13 and 14 are disposedwithin the body of the case at the opposite ends thereof, the outwardlypresented sides of the tablets will more or less snugly fit against theinner faces of the end walls 6 of the said body, the body being of suchlength as to provide sufficient space between the adjacent or innersides of the tablet to accommodate the retaining member as will bepresently explained.

The retaining member embodying the present invention is indicated ingeneral by the numeral 17 and is preferably formed from an integralblank of resilient sheet metal of such contour and so stamped orotherwise fashioned as to provide sides 18 connected at their upperportions by a transversely rounded relatively narrow connecting portion19, the said sides 18 being located in downwardly diverging planes asclearly shown in Figs. 2 and 4 of the drawings. For a purpose to bepresently pointed out each side 18 of the retaining member is providedwith an integral outstanding flat and substantially horizontallydisposed flange 20 preferably of greater width at its ends than at itsintermediate portion, the longitudinal edge of the flange being arcuatein form and inwardly curved as indicated by the numeral 21. Also for apurpose to be presently stated each side ortion 18 is stamped out toprovide a protu erance 22 projecting from its outer face and locatedsubstantially midway between its ends and at a point suitably spacedabove the lower edge of the respective side portion. By reference toFigs. 1 and 2 of the drawings it will be observed that the retainingdevice just described is to be positioned between the tablets 13 and 14with the flanges 20 of its side portions 18 resting upon the upper faceof the bottom 7 of the case, and by reference to Fig. 3 it Will beobserved that the retaining member is of a length substantially equal tothe distance between the inner faces, of the front and rear walls 4 and5 of the body of the case so that When the said member is placed inposition within the body its ends will abut against the said inner facesof the said front and rear walls of the body and these walls will betherefore relatively braced and prevented from being crushed in orotherwise distorted. The height of the retaining member is such thatwhen the member is preferably assembled within the body of the case oneend of its connecting portion 19 will engage beneath the shoulder 10 atthe front wall of the case and the other end of the connecting portionwill engage beneath the hinge lugs forming a part of the hinge 3, thesaid retaining member being in this manner securely held within the bodyalthough adapted to be removed upon slightly springing the walls 4 and 5of the said body away from each other. In order to disengage theprotuberance 11 from tlfe socket 12 in the flange 8 of the lid 2when itis desired to swing the lid to open position, it is necessary to exert aslight inward pressure against the upper portion of the front wall ofthe box so as to slightly spring this portion of the said wall in aninward direction and while the retaining member extends between thefront and rear Walls of the body and relatively braces these walls,nevertheless the stated inward springing of the upper portion of thefront wall is not prevented because of the fact that the retainingmember is of such height as to stop short of the protuberance 11. Asstated before the retaining member is formed from resilient sheet metaland therefore inasmuch as its side portions 18 are normally spaced apartand diverge in a down Ward direction, the member may be considered asnormally expanded. However, due to the resiliency of the member andparticularly its connecting portion 19, the said member may be laterallycompressed by springing the side portions 18 toward each other.Therefore having positioned the retaining member substantially midwaybetween the ends of the body of the case and also having disposed inposition one of the compressed powder tablets, the other tablet may bereadily fitted and looked into place by merely disposing it within itsrespective compartment and exerting downward pressure against it tendingto force it to position resting upon the upper face of the bottom of thebody of the case. As the tablet is thus forced downwardly, theupstanding wall of its base 15 will ride over the respectiveprotuberance 22 forcing the side portions 18 together until the base hasassumed a position resting upon the upper face of the respective flange20 whereupon the protuberance 22 will engage with the upper edge of thewall 16 and serve to lock said base and the tablet carried thereby inplace. Of course, when the tablet to be last disposed within the casehas been fitted into place in the manner above described, the tabletwhich was first placed in position will be similarly locked againstdisplacement and it will be understood that when both of the tablets areproperly positioned the expansion of the retaining member will result inits side portions 18 exerting lateral pressure against the tablets ortheir bases causing the same to bear firmly against the respective endwalls 6 of the body of the case so that the tablets will be additionallyheld in place through frictional contact with the said end walls of thecase body. When it is desired to remove either or both of the tablets toreplenish the vanity case, either tablet may be tilted upwardly at itsouter side, or in other words, its side which engages the respective endwall 6 of the case body, or the forefinger and thumb of each hand may becausedto exert compressive force against the side portions 18 of theretaining member, thereby laterally compressing this member andpermitting of the member being lifted upwardly carrying with it theinner or adjacent sides of the tablets.

It will be evident as before stated and particularly by reference toFigs. 1 and 2 of the drawings that the retaining member serves also as apartition dividing the interior of the case body into two compartmentseach housing a respective one of the compressed powder cakes or tabletsand each also housing a powder puff designed for use inconnection withthe powder cake contained in that respective compartment, the said puifsbeing indicated in the drawings by the numeral 23.

In certain of the claims which are to follow I will refer to a fixedelement located within the container. As before stated the device of thepresent invention is capable of employment in securing in place a singleone of the articles provided it is disposed between the said article anda relatively fixed element, and inasmuch as either of the articlesillustrated in the drawings may be considered as a fixed element locatedwithin the container, one of said articles might be replaced by a wallof the contalner. I

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. A device for the purpose stated comprising a member having sideportions and a resilient connecting portion, the side portions beingnormally relatively expanded, and each side portion being providedinwardly of its margin with a protuberance.

2. A device for the purpose stated comprising a member having sideportions and a resilient connecting portion, the side portions beingnormally relatively expanded, each side portion being provided with aprotuberance, and base portions projecting outwardly from the loweredges of the side portions.

3. The combination with an article container having opposite rigid wallsand articles disposed within the container, of means for retaining thesaid articles in place comprising a member disposed between the articlesand comprising resiliently connected side portions exerting pressureagainst the articles and holding them against the said opposite walls ofthe container, and looking elements upon the said side portions forcooperation with the said articles.

4. The combination with an article container a wall of which is providedupon its inner side with a shoulder, of a partition disposed within thecontainer and having a portion engaged by the shoulder whereby to beretained against accidental displacement, the said member embodyingmeans for exerting pressure against an article disposed beside the samein the direction of one of the walls of the container.

5. The combination with an article container a wall of which is providedupon its inner side with a shoulder, of a partition disposed within thecontainer and having a portion engaged by the shoulder whereby to beretained against accidental displacement, the said member embodyingmeans for exerting pressure against an article disposed beside the samein the direction of one of the walls of the container, a lid hingedlyconnected with a Wall of the container and coacting locking elementsupon the lid and the first-mentioned wall of the container, the saidrst-mentioned wall of the container being inwardly yieldable at a pointabove the 'said shoulder thereon to provide for disengagement of thesaid looking elements.

6. A device for the purpose stated comprising a member having sideportions, a resilient connecting portion, and base portions extendinglaterally from the lower edge of the side portions, each side portionbeing provided between the base and the connecting portion with aprojecting locking element.

In testimony whereof I ailix my signature.

WILLIAM G. KENDALL. 14.8.

